# How is Doonesbury liberal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [January 7, 2024, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716 "2024-01-07T01:01:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/81 "2024-01-15T08:42:46Z")
Haven’t read Pogo or Li’l Abner in ages (and I’m not interested enough in either to buy a collection), so I can’t comment on those, unfortunately. I’ve just finished 1988, and it’s definitely been a fun ride so far. This is, no joke, what Bloom County would’ve turned into if Berke Breathed didn’t have to step back and reexamine his priorities every few years. Anyway, yeah, I get that Doonesbury is a liberal comic (and yeah, so was The Boondocks, thanks for asking 🙂) and my frame of reference is a lot different from mainstream America (which became appallingly obvious by about 3rd grade, but never mind that). Nonetheless, I get the strong feeling that Trudeau isn’t consciously _trying_ to espouse a left-wing viewpoint. I’d just like to add [one of the more recent comics](https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2021/12/05) giving a roll call of the conservative characters. It says something that Mike and BD are by far the _least_ intelligent and successful members of the group, and they both have financial security, nice homes, loving families, steady careers, and the respect of pretty much everyone around them not a bitter ex-wife or disgruntled football player. There’s a pervasive pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps, God-helps-those-who-helps themselves ethos at play (and yes, it was **always** the conservative figures… Catholics, teachers, coaches, aunts and uncles, Catholic aunts and uncles… drilling these lessons into me), that if you _stop whining_ and _put your nose to the grindstone_ and _hustle_, good things will happen to you. (May I remind everyone that this is most emphatically _not_ the case for a very large section of the world.) And of course, on the opposite end is Uncle Duke (really funny character, BTW), who’s always looking for the quick fix, which invariably blows up in his face, and Elmont, who despite being on the right side of history will forever be a useless derelict because he’s just not willing to _work_, dangit! The bottom line is that even in a liberal work, right wingers can be well-written interesting, funny, and even sympathetic. And anyone who can do that consistently decade after decade most definitely has my respect. Oh, just one more point of comparison: [This](https://www.dailykos.com/user/Tom%20Tomorrow) is the most liberal comic I’ve ever read, but it’s an overtly political cartoon so I’m not sure if it counts. You tell me. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/82 "2024-01-15T15:19:58Z")
These are some of Trudeau’s favourite strips (ten are in the last link below), which definitely have a liberal vibe. [![](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/HZL4PDXZDRADPC4TEKQESSSTKY.tiff&w=1200) ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/HZL4PDXZDRADPC4TEKQESSSTKY.tiff&w=1200) [![](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/AZKCG5V4BVAWFHR7EFB4BDVRXQ.tiff&w=1200) ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/AZKCG5V4BVAWFHR7EFB4BDVRXQ.tiff&w=1200) [![](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/SQR2CU7U2FH7FGARI7FTIKESPQ.tiff&w=1200) ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/SQR2CU7U2FH7FGARI7FTIKESPQ.tiff&w=1200) [![](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/A6YVUI4WLFGTZM6ABCLMCJFUOQ.jpg&w=1200) ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/A6YVUI4WLFGTZM6ABCLMCJFUOQ.jpg&w=1200) > **[As ‘Doonesbury’ turns 50, Garry Trudeau picks his 10 defining strips](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/11/27/doonesbury-garry-trudeau-anniversary/)** > > These legendary "Doonesbury" strips address sex, war, feminism and Watergate, and one even inspired a Florida law. A new book celebrates the anniversary. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/83 "2024-01-15T15:51:23Z")
And to to paraphrase your own earlier comment, none of that should be “conservative” values in the 2024 context of conservative=RW, they should be just what’s normal. _…should…_ (sigh) ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/84 "2024-01-15T16:55:49Z")
One of the unpleasantly interesting differences between the 1970’s and the 2020’s is that, when it became clear what Nixon had done, quite a lot of Republican conservatives _didn’t_ back him. One of the things they wanted to conserve, at the time, was the small-d democratic processes of the USA. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/85 "2024-01-15T20:42:18Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > [This](https://www.dailykos.com/user/Tom%20Tomorrow) is the most liberal comic I’ve ever read, but it’s an overtly political cartoon so I’m not sure if it counts. You tell me. I did, literally in the post above yours. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I like _Tom the Dancing Bug_ as well as Tom Tomorrow’s _This Modern World_. … I don’t think of either Tom as being liberal. They might have been once but they’ve been progressive/radical/far-left for a long time, certainly all the Trump era. Do you ever expect to see Tom Tomorrow say nice things about conservatives, even anti-Trump conservatives? I’d be amazed. That’s what separated leftist political cartoonists from the broader world of a liberal satirist. The latter went after the foibles of every side. Mort Sahl invented modern satire and attacked Democrats as well as Republicans. The late night hosts tried to be even-handed in their mockery in the 20th century. Even actual leftist political cartoonists would go Democratic presidents. None of that is remotely possible in our world. Once the Republicans set up an alternate media world of unrelenting attack, most liberal humorists understood that we were literally at war and bothsidesism was giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Trudeau - the guy who would never draw a president and just represented them by a symbol - now does strips like [yesterday’s](https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2024/01/14), a vicious caricature of a rotting Trump. The strip you linked to was a last line being crossed, in which Trudeau, who bent over backward to display a reasonable and responsible opposition, admitted that all decency had been erased and the gloves were off. Trudeau, the last of the liberals, is a liberal no more. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/86 "2024-01-15T20:45:02Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > Oh, just one more point of comparison: [This](https://www.dailykos.com/user/Tom%20Tomorrow) is the most liberal comic I’ve ever read, but it’s an overtly political cartoon so I’m not sure if it counts. You tell me. That just takes me to a page of the Daily Kos, where they give a bio of Tom Tomorrow . Mind you, that strip is very liberal, but they do a LOT of strawmanning. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/87 "2024-01-15T21:15:35Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I never really understood the decision by some newspapers to move it to the editorial pages. I doubt it was because they thought the strip had a liberal bias but rather the subjects were just too mature for the “funny pages”. FWIW, the _Washington Post_ – _Doonesbury_’s home paper – runs the strip in the Editorial section. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/88 "2024-01-15T22:17:13Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > FWIW, the _Washington Post_ – _Doonesbury_’s home paper – runs the strip in the Editorial section. Sorry, but it doesn’t. It runs it where all the other cartoons are on two pages in the Style section from Monday to Saturday and in a separate section of the paper just for cartoons on Sunday just like it does for all the other cartoons. I don’t know why you think that it runs it in the editorial pages. (Incidentally, there is no editorial section, since editorials are on two pages of the main section each day, not in a separate section.) Perhaps it ran _Doonesbury_ on those pages at one point, but it doesn’t do that now. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/89 "2024-01-15T22:53:33Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Perhaps it ran _Doonesbury_ on those pages at one point, but it doesn’t do that now. It’s been a _long_ time since we had a subscription so either I wasn’t aware it had joined the rest of the comics or had been aware and simply forgot. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/90 "2024-01-16T17:20:51Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Funny Times was started by two hippies, but outlasted them and is now run by their kids. I used to subscribe, too. I first was introduced to it by the daughter of a bf when she was attending CSU Humboldt, so I always associate it in my mind with funky college towns. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/91 "2024-01-16T18:42:09Z")
I started subscribing when I was at Humboldt! Small world. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/92 "2024-01-16T18:43:18Z")
Did it start at Humboldt??? For some reason, I had the impression that it had, but I could be wildly wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/93 "2024-01-16T19:15:47Z")
I think it’s always been produced in Ohio, although I don’t know the first years. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/94 "2024-01-16T19:39:12Z")
The Wikipedia entry on _Funny Times_ says that it was inspired by a similar paper called _The Comic News_ which was published in Santa Cruz, California. _Funny Times_ was originally edited by a married couple named Susan Wolpert and Raymond Lesser. The editorship has changed several times since it was first published in 1985. It doesn’t say anything about the later editors being their children. It’s now produced in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, but it doesn’t say anything about where all it has been produced over its history: > **[Funny Times (newspaper)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Times_(newspaper))** > > Funny Times (FT) is an American humor newspaper founded in 1985, and still published as of 2023, by the wife and husband team of Susan Wolpert and Raymond Lesser. Wolpert and Lesser were inspired by The Comic News of Santa Cruz, California, "a monthly journal of progressive editorial cartoons" founded in 1984 by Thom Zajac. FT's political content is often subversive and has a progressive/liberal perspective. > In 1997, Sandee Beyerle came across the office of Funny Times while trying to escape ... ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/95 "2024-01-16T20:58:28Z")
Heh, Santa Cruz. Arcata. Birds of a feather… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/96 "2024-01-16T21:30:46Z")
I didn’t say the kids were editors, I said it was run by their kids. The listing in the paper is Co-Publishers … Renae Lesser and Gabriel Piser. Piser is her husband. The Funny Times [About Staff](https://funnytimes.com/about/about_staff/) page makes that all explicit. Lesser and her husband now live in Bloomington, Indiana. Sue and Ray live in Cleveland Heights, OH. The staff seems to live all over, but some in Ohio. Mia Beach is editor. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/97 "2024-01-16T22:10:25Z")
The paragraph about Raymond Lesser says that he graduated from New College of Florida. This is the college that Ron DeSantis has decided to destroy for the fun of it. It’s also where I got my bachelor’s degree from (as I’ve mentioned before on the SDMB). He graduated from it in 1977, as you can see in [New College Class of 1977 Commencement program](https://ncf.sobek.ufl.edu/NCF0000979/00001). There’s a picture of him in [An Interview With The Funny Times's Editor - Ray Lesser - www.ThinkingFunny.com](https://www.thinkingfunny.com/an-interview-with-the-funny-timess-editor-ray-lesser/). I graduated from New College in 1974. It’s possible we crossed paths at some point. I don’t have any clear memory of him though. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/98 "2024-01-16T22:21:57Z")
> [@DKW](#): > > Little Nemo - Honey always struck me as someone born in a very bad spot who always did what it took to not get killed or deported and got enamored with someone who could get away with defying the man. Phred always tries to do what’s best for his country. Neither ever struck me as particularly liberal, just practical. I agree they’re not liberals. But you referred to members of hard-left groups. Honey is a member of the Chinese Communist party and was part of Mao’s inner circle and Phred was a member of the Viet Cong. And both are high-ranking officials in their country’s communist regimes. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/99 "2024-01-16T23:00:31Z")
New College sounds exactly like the kind of place someone who lived off the land for five years would attend. I see Lesser got a General Studies Degree. I know now I should have gotten a General Studies degree myself but my college didn’t offer anything like that. I hope that you had a terrific time there. And what DeSantis is doing to it is exactly the kind of thing that gets him called a fascist. ETA: Or maybe not. I didn’t read who the speakers were. The Director of “Corporate Social Responsibility for Monsanto” and a resident scholar at the American enterprise Institute. That’s who DeSantis would invite. Maybe New College has a U curve from conservative to liberal back to conservative. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716/100 "2024-01-16T23:18:08Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Maybe New College has a U curve from conservative to liberal back to conservative. No, it was always liberal before DeSantis decided to destroy it. I can’t find anything about this Anna Navarro. There are several woman with similar names, but they don’t seem to be her. I have no idea what her political opinions are. It’s possible for someone to be the token liberal in a conservative organization. I suspect whoever invited her to be a speaker just noticed that a New College graduate had gotten an interesting job and invited her without looking too hard at her politics. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-doonesbury-liberal/995716.md?page=6)